IJN 1st Air Fleet

The IJN 1st Air Fleet was an Imperial Japanese Navy combined carrier battle group that was active from 10 April 1941 to 14 July 1942 and from 1 June 1943 to 15 June 1945. At the time of the Attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the fleet was the world's largest fleet of aircraft carriers, and it later fought at the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway, the Battle of Santa Cruz, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Chuichi Nagumo commanded the battle group from 1941 to 1942, and Kakuji Kakuta commanded the fleet from June 1943 to August 1944, followed by Kinpei Teraoka from August to October 1944, Takijiro Onishi from October 1944 to May 1945, and Kiyohide Shima from May to June 1945.